Those Blood Rocks were previously only available once per playthrough, from a hidden area in the Nightmare of Mensis. That's quite late into the game, so this change theoretically gives you access to a +10 weapon much earlier. Or even several +10 weapons.

Maximum blood vials and quicksilver bullets have been increased to 600, instead of 99. And once you've found Lost or Uncanny versions of weapons, they'll be purchasable, though I haven't seen anyone doing interesting theorycrafting with Lost/Uncanny blood gem combinations.

Of course, no amount of shifting blood gems around will compare to getting your evasion timings right, and Bloodborne's size means that chalice dungeons are really more about fun with friends than anything else. But it can be fun to have something to work towards, and at least gearing up will make you a little more prepared for the upcoming DLC.

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Comments

I'm terrible at coordinating playtime with friends, and tend to just solo this sort of thing. Are the dungeons still an enjoyable solo experience? I'm at level 60ish and just finishing up Byrgenwerth, should I try them out now or later?

Hmmm, they're okay. I much prefer the main story, but the dungeons add a level of challenge that far surpasses the base game, which might appeal to you. Some of the best boss battles in the game can only be found in the Chalice dungeons, and the levels themselves are generally short enough that they don't get too tedious.

You're already overlevelled for the early dungeons, but chances are you'll want to nearly double that level for the later dungeons.

Me too. I was level 162 when I finished NG in Bloodborne. I was about level 160 when I went through the last couple of chalice dungeons. I *still* got my arse handed to me a dozen times by the boss before the final chalice dungeon boss. Leveling doesn't really solve anything past a certain point. I'd say somewhere about 100-120 would be fine for any of the chalice dungeons. If you want easy XP, just use your small resonant bell and help randoms in co-op. Doing a boss run can easily net you a level or two's worth of echoes, and you don't risk losing them if you die.

I found the dungeons a bit of fun with friends, but the lack of worthwhile loot and the fact that you get hardly any blood echoes for the enemies you defeat meant that I didn't spend much time there. Kept having to go back out to the main game where you can earn enough blood echoes to keep your supplies well stocked and just generally make it worth the time and effort you put in.

Might go back and give the dungeons another go with this patch, though - the crafting materials might make it worthwhile.

Do the enemies in the dungeons get harder once you're in NG+? Or do they stay fairly consistent and just level with the difficulty of the dungeon itself rather than whether your or a first or subsequent playthrough of the main game?

Not really. You only need a single blood rock to get to +10, but you need 16 chunks to get from +7 to +9. Even if you pick up a blood rock from a chalice dungeon, you still need to spend a substantial amount of time farming chunk drops, at least before this patch.

I think its subjective playing chalice dungeons solo. for me it was a massive boring slog through the same stuff, while a friend of mine loved it and ended doing all the depths with all the 3 extra parameters just to challenge himself and even did several depth 5 root chalices just to see if their was anything different,

Chalice dungeons are definitely a fun experience. At 60 the level 1 chalice dungeons should be easy. They are a great way to test your awareness as the creators obviously love placing traps everywhere.
Once you work your way down it gets a lot more difficult and pretty much requires you to have 50 vit, 40 end, and 50 in your main damage stat by the time you get to level 5.
And of course they are good to solo. I'd actually say it's better to do them solo (did all chalice dungeons solo including final boss at bottom depth).

There's a special feeling of achievement you get when you solo a really tough boss. I co-oped quite a bit of Bloodborne, but my favourite boss battles were the ones where my buddy got slaughtered very early on, and I kept going to bring victory home... or where I soloed right from the start.

Taking down the Defiled Dungeon bosses solo was the best rush I've had in a FROM game since I first got stuck into Demon's Souls.

Couldn't tell who you were talking about at first - Queen Yarnham or Amygdala? Then I read defiled dungeon and jumping around. Definitely Amygdala.
I actually found her incredibly easy. Just roll through her legs and stand near her tail. She'll try to stomp you, so you dodge and strike once. She'll eventually jump and at first will land on top of you. If you have a Ludwigs you can actually charge an R2 and get her head. Then go back through her legs. When her jumps start landing away from you just run to her tail again and hit her once after a stomp. Repeat till boss is dead.

There was one (edit: are several) depth 5 dungeons that have a hidden Block Rock, according to the Fextralife wiki. It could only be obtained once per playthrough, even if you recreated the dungeon from scratch.

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